McCain: More of the same

John McCain has run a campaign so dishonest that even Karl Rove criticized his ridiculous ads claiming Obama wants "comprehensive sex ed" for kindergarteners as going "too far."

McCain's first major decision was a reckless and cynical choice of a running mate who turns complaints that Obama is inexperienced into a bad joke. In her first major media appearance, McCain's veep choice, the mayor of Wasilla, suggested that the United States might have to go to war with Russia. Won't that be fun?

Last week, as the Dow took its biggest hit since 9/11, after the sale of Merrill Lynch and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, McCain was still giving his stump speech about the fundamentals of our economy being strong. As the economy goes into a tailspin, he offers the same Republican bromides about even more deregulation and even lower taxes. That's lower taxes on the top 1%, by the way. And while McCain would give the smallest cuts to the lowest earners, worth about $19 per year, the top 1 in 1,000 taxpayers would get the biggest cut, worth $140,000 annually.

Here in Wisconsin, the McCain campaign has sought to disenfranchise voters. Our state elections agency is investigating the McCain camp for sending out absentee ballots addressed to the wrong clerk to thousands of Democratic voters. Add to that Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's idea of stopping people at the polls if the Department of Motor Vehicles doesn't have their correct information, dating back to January 2006, and our home state could look a lot like Florida in 2000 come November, minus the balmy weather.